1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an opto-electric common jack type connector for connecting between digital audio systems and between information systems which use a disk or a cassette tape as a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been known conventional opto-electric common jack type connectors for connecting between digital audio systems, which are adapted to be mounted on a surface of a printed board, and comprise: an optical-to-electric converter or an electric-to-optical converter which receives and transmits an optical signal from/to an optical signal transmission plug provided at an end of a fiber optic cable for optical signal transmission when the optical signal transmission plug is connected to the jack type connector; terminals each extending from the converter and adapted to be fixed onto circuitry of the printed board for reception and transmission of an electric signal; terminals adapted to be fixed onto the circuitry of the printed board for receiving and transmitting an electric signal from/to an electric signal transmission plug when the electric signal transmission plug is connected to the jack type connector; and a retainer which holds the converter and the terminals (see, for example, Japanese unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 6(1994)-140106).
In some of the jack type connectors, the retainer includes a resin molded body having a bottom wall of a reduced thickness for size reduction thereof.
For prevention of undesirable flexure of the terminals which may occur when the plug is inserted into the jack type connector, a consideration has been given to the configuration of the tips of the terminals.
The market of digital audio systems demands size and thickness reduction of portable systems such as portable MD systems and portable CD systems.
Since the conventional opto-electric common jack type connectors are adapted to be mounted on the printed board, an assembly of the printed board and the conventional opto-electric common jack type connector mounted thereon has a height (hereinafter referred to as "set total thickness") which equals to the thickness of the retainer plus the thickness of the printed board. Therefore, further reduction of the thickness is impossible.
The terminals to be used for mounting the jack type connector onto the board typically each have a straight configuration or an L-shaped bent configuration. Since the terminals include a movable terminal, phosphor bronze is commonly used as the material for the terminals in consideration of the movability of the movable terminal.
The movable terminal generally has a slightly greater length than the other terminals for prevention of the flexure of the movable terminal at the insertion of the plug.
The retainer has to accommodate therein the movable terminal with a sufficient room for movement of the longer movable terminal, resulting in an increase in the size of the opto-electric common jack type connector.
In view of the movability and possible flexure of the movable terminal, however, it is impossible to reduce the length of the movable terminal to less than the conventional level.
For reduction of the length of the movable terminal, it is necessary to reconsider materials for the movable terminal.
Another problem associated with the conventional opto-electric common jack type connector is that the resin molded body of the retainer has a great wall thickness to prevent a soldering flux from creeping up into the jack type connector from the surface of the printed board when the jack type connector is mounted onto the printed board by soldering.
For further reduction of the size and thickness of the opto-electric common jack type connector, the jack type connector should be designed so that the wall thickness of the resin molded body of the retainer is reduced as much as possible with the terminals being exposed to the outside.
Without any special consideration, the exposure of the terminals permits the soldering flux to creep into the jack type connector, making it impossible to establish an electrical connection between the plug and the terminals and locking the movable terminal.